Streamlining finance key to African transition

Climate funds and MDBs are providing essential investment for the continent’s energy transition, but arrangements are complicated and scale is lacking

Three decades of climate finance have produced an array of funds and institutions tasked with backing clean energy projects with donor money. The profusion of institutions notwithstanding, Africa’s massive energy financing gaps are practically undiminished.  The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for universal affordable and clean energy by 2030. As governments of emerging and developing economies can realistically expect higher borrowing costs and limited fiscal space in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, private investment will increasingly be called upon to play a critical function in making that a reality.  Efforts by climate funds to boost Africa’s sustainable transition have gr